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Fusarium wilt of bananas caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense Tropical Race 4 (Foc TR4) poses the most serious threat to banana production globally. The disease has been managed using chemical fungicides, yet the control levels are still unsatisfactory. This study investigated the antifungal activities of tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) essential oil (TTO) and hydrosol (TTH) against Foc TR4 and their bioactive components. The potential of TTO and TTH in inhibiting the growth of Foc TR4 was evaluated in vitro using agar well diffusion and spore germination assays. Compared to the chemical fungicide, TTO effectively suppressed the mycelial growth of Foc TR4 at 69%. Both the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) of TTO and TTH were established at 0.2 µg/µL and 50% v/v, respectively, suggesting the fungicidal nature of the plant extracts. The disease control efficacies were also demonstrated by a (p ≤ 0.05) delayed Fusarium wilt symptom development in the susceptible banana plants with reduced LSI dan RDI scores from 70% to around 20–30%. A GC/MS analysis of TTO identified terpinen-4-ol, eucalyptol, and α-terpineol as the major components. In contrast, an LC/MS analysis of TTH identified different compounds, including dihydro-jasmonic acid and methyl ester. Our findings indicate the potential of tea tree extracts as natural alternatives to chemical fungicides to control Foc TR4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Vacuolar processing enzyme (VPE) is a cysteine protease responsible for vacuolar proteins' maturation and regulation of programmed cell death in plants. Among four isoforms of Arabidopsis thaliana VPEs, only the functions of βVPE, γVPE, and δVPE were determined. Hence, to investigate the possible function of αVPE, promoter analysis, co-expression network, gene expression profiling, and loss of function studies were performed. Repetitive drought-related cis-elements such as ABRE, MBS, MYC, and MYB were successfully identified with the aid of PlantCARE and PLACE databases. Similarly, the co-expression network also revealed that genes interacting with αVPE were involved in drought-regulation-related function. In addition, A. thaliana under drought treatment recorded an upregulation of αVPE expression (2.7-fold). Loss of function study through αvpe knockout mutants showed that αvpe mutants remained viable with 22% higher water retention as compared with wild-type after drought treatment. Biochemical analyses recorded a 47% reduction in proline activity, 70% decrease in sucrose content, and 39% lower MDA content, but 50% increased photosynthetic pigments in αvpe mutants. Altogether, our study provided important proof and a foundation for understanding the involvement of αVPE in modulating drought tolerance in A. thaliana. Vacuolar processing enzyme (VPE) is a cysteine protease responsible for vacuolar proteins' maturation and regulation of programmed cell death (PCD). Four isoforms of Arabidopsis thaliana VPEs were identified previously, but only the functions of βVPE, γVPE, and δVPE were determined. The specific function of a gene is linked to the cis-acting elements in the promoter region. A promoter analysis found repetitive drought-related cis-elements in αVPE, which highlight its potential involvement in drought regulation in A. thaliana. The further co-expression network portraying genes interacting with αVPE substantiated its drought-regulation-related function. Expression of αVPE was upregulated after drought treatment in A. thaliana. To confirm the role of αVPE, a loss of function study revealed that αVPE knockout mutants remained green compared with WT after drought treatment. The mutants had reduced proline activity, decreased sucrose content, and lower MDA content, but increased photosynthetic pigments, indicating that αVPE negatively regulates drought tolerance in A. thaliana. Taken together, our findings serve as important evidence of the involvement of αVPE in modulating drought tolerance in A. thaliana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption in human society has increased as more energy supplies are required to meet the needs of the world's growing population. However, there is a major concern about fulfilling energy demand while reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Bamboo-based biomass has great potential for use as a raw material for the production of biofuels and bioenergy. Bamboo possesses excellent fuel qualities that can be converted into solid, liquid, and gaseous biofuels. Hence, the cultivation and harvesting operations must be performed efficiently to ensure that the availability of this biomass is sufficient to meet the demand for biofuel production. Several studies have shown that the micropropagation technique has increased bamboo production and that proper bamboo plantation management can benefit both the environment and society. Nevertheless, there are several challenges in bamboo cultivation and biofuel production, such as environmental impact from land management and economic risk from the industrial supply chain. Bamboo-producing countries, including Malaysia, have initiated several policies to propose strategies for sustaining the bamboo industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flooding caused or exacerbated by climate change has threatened plant growth and food production worldwide. The lack of knowledge on how crops respond and adapt to flooding stress imposes a major barrier to enhancing their productivity. Hence, understanding the flooding-responsive mechanisms of crops is indispensable for developing new flooding-tolerant varieties. Here, we examined the banana (Musa acuminata cv. Berangan) responses to soil waterlogging for 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, and 24 days. After waterlogging stress, banana root samples were analyzed for their molecular and biochemical changes. We found that waterlogging treatment induced the formation of adventitious roots and aerenchyma with conspicuous gas spaces. In addition, the antioxidant activities, hydrogen peroxide, and malondialdehyde contents of the waterlogged bananas increased in response to waterlogging stress. To assess the initial response of bananas toward waterlogging stress, we analyzed the transcriptome changes of banana roots. A total of 3508 unigenes were differentially expressed under 1-day waterlogging conditions. These unigenes comprise abiotic stress-related transcription factors, such as ethylene response factors, basic helix-loop-helix, myeloblastosis, plant signal transduction, and carbohydrate metabolisms. The findings of the study provide insight into the complex molecular events of bananas in response to waterlogging stress, which could later help develop waterlogging resilient crops for the future climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expression profile of pathogenesis related genes are signatures of an infection response in plant cells. Pathogenic infections can increase or reduce gene expression in a plant system in a relatively specific pattern. These expression patterns can be used as standards in pathogenicity studies and, where phenotypic expression is normally used to gauge a plants response to infection, it could additionally present a more rapid and early screening reference tool. Three genes: catalase (CAT), pathogen related protein (PR10), and phenylalanine ammonia (PAL) all implicitly implicated in the plant disease response pathway were targeted for analysis during the infection of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (FOCR4) in banana Musa acuminata cv. Berangan seedlings after a standard challenge under growth room conditions. Distinct patterns of gene expression were observed at three infection time points by real time expression analysis. There was a sequential 10-fold reduction in expression for the PR gene while, the PAL and CAT genes were both upregulated. These results present a set of reference genes that could be used for screening of a plant's response to Fusarium before the onset of symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Waterlogging poses a significant threat to plant growth and yield worldwide. Identifying the genes responsible for mitigating waterlogging stress is crucial. Ethylene-responsive factors (ERFs) are transcriptional regulators that respond to various biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. However, their roles and involvement in responding to waterlogging stress remain largely unexplored. Hence, this study aimed to elucidate the role of ERFs in enhancing banana plant resilience to waterlogging., Methods: We hypothesized that introducing a group VII ERF transcription factor in Arabidopsis could enhance waterlogging stress tolerance. To test this hypothesis, we isolated MaERFVII3 from banana roots, where it exhibited a significant induction in response to waterlogging stress. The isolated MaERFVII3 was introduced into Arabidopsis plants for functional gene studies., Results: Compared with wild-type plants, the MaERFVII3 -expressing Arabidopsis showed increased survival and biomass under waterlogging stress. Furthermore, the abundance of transcripts related to waterlogging and hypoxia response showed an elevation in transgenic plants but a decrease in wild-type and empty vector plants when exposed to waterlogging stress. Our results demonstrate the significant contribution of MaERFVII3 to waterlogging tolerance in Arabidopsis , providing baseline data for further exploration and potentially contributing to crop improvement programs., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2024 Teoh et al.)